And The Last Men Cried
by AviatorFoxtrot
Summary: Kevin Price works at the International Space Station. One day, he wakes up and find out that every other crew member is dead. Meanwhile, there was an accident back home that wiped out almost everybody at Control Center. The only person left on Earth is Arnold Cunningham, and he's Price's only hope of keeping sane. (space AU)


_Author's Note: This was from an RP I did with my friend in a chat room, so this is why Kevin's and Arnold's POVs are separated by lines. I was Kevin, and she was Arnold, so we each get half credit. Uploaded with her permission, of course. Also, we didn't research the technicalities of what happened in the ISS and Mission Control, so there's definitely going to be inaccuracies, but don't mind those._

Arnold woke up and was cramped. He tried to stretch but he hit something metal. He then realized where he was. A fridge.  
Arnold kicked open the door and saw corpses lying everywhere. Arnold screamed and cried. He remembered hearing a siren and running inside and remembering that Indiana Jones movie. It was bad, but it saved him.  
"Hello?" he yelled. "Hello? Anyone?" Mission Control was all dead. Arnold ran to communications and slammed his finger on the call button to the ISS. The call was static and his voice came through muffled.

Kevin started to shake.  
They didn't respond, the other men in the cabins. When he got closer to one man, it was obvious by the waxy paleness of his colleague's skin that they were dead.  
He made a sound in the back of his throat, and his heart beat rapidly against his chest. Kevin wanted to break down and yell, but all he could do was to stare.  
Someone's voice crackled into the system. He forced himself to drift over to a panel. With shaky hands, he pressed a button and said, "H-hi. Do you receive?"

"Oh, thank gosh someone's alive– I mean –" Arnold put on a manly voice. "This is Mission Control. Are you all good?"

Kevin opened his mouth to respond, but he didn't speak.

"Hello? Do you read me?" Arnold pressed a buzzer over and over. "Please," he added as he cried.

"I read. I read...yeah," Kevin stammered. His voice was cracking.

"Oh, thank God." Arnold's tears fell onto some buttons. "How's everything up there?"

Without warning, Kevin started to cry. He bowed his head to stifle his tears, but he knew the person on the other end could hear him.

"Sir, please tell me your name. Just last name if you can," Arnold pleaded.

"It's-" Kevin cleared his throat. "Price."

"Well, Mr. Price, I'm going to need you to tell me what happened." Arnold tried not to cry, not in front of this distraught man. Then it all sank in that all his family and friends could be dead too, and he let out a sob.

"Everyone else is..." Kevin heard the sound from the other end and his heart sank. "I f-found everyone else in the cabins dead. I haven't checked the people on alternating shifts, but I haven't heard anyone else." He looked over his shoulder, in case there was another survivor.

"Oh no. Oh no no no." Arnold's eyes welled up with tears. "Mr Price, I need you to stay as calm as you possibly can. Can you do that for me? I have something I need to tell you."

Kevin's hands gripped the edge of the panel until his knuckles were white. "What is it?" he said, his voice barely audible.

"From what I know, everyone near Mission Control is..." Arnold held back a sob. "Dead...everyone," he whispered.

He could barely comprehend what the other person said before the blood started rushing into his head. It became hard to breathe. Kevin drifted away from the panel, the screens blurring in his vision, and then he drew in his legs. He buried his face into his knees, gasping for air as he felt tears burn into his eyes.

"Mr. Price, we are going to get through this," Arnold said shakily. "This is Arnold Cunningham, and I am..." he choked out a sob, "I am going to try and help you through this."

Kevin slowly raised his head to look at the screen. "Look, I can't do this," he said, "You know I'm going to die here."

"Yes you can. You're a trained astronaut. You can do this." Arnold held back his sobs so this guy can be okay.

"I can't," Kevin repeated. His voice trembled. " _I can't_."

"Yes you can. Remember your training." Arnold really didn't know how to help this man out.

"They didn't train me for _this_." Kevin's voice was growing desperate by the second.

"It's just like the isolation thing... right? I mean, you can talk to me though..."

"No one else is here," Kevin ran on, "I can't do this, I'm going to die here–" He choked up in tears.

"Can you turn on the video chat?" Arnold asked.

"What? Sure, I–I'll do that." Kevin grappled for a hold on the panel again and pressed a button. The screen blacked out for a few seconds, sending chills down his spine in the silence. When the screen lit up again, he let out a sigh in relief. "Can you see me?" he asked.

Arnold pressed his video button. He picked up a seemingly lifeless body out of a chair and dragged it off before he sat in the chair. "Can you see me?"

Kevin pressed his palms against one of his eyes. "I can," he replied. "What's that behind you?" he asked, referring to another limp body behind Cunningham.

"It's... it's a dead body... they're everywhere," Arnold mumbled.

"Oh gosh," Kevin said in a hushed voice.

"I haven't heard from any of the other cities... I–" Arnold swallowed and started to cry again.

Kevin watched the other man break into tears. He hastily wiped off his own tear bubbles that were clinging to his eyes. _If these tears end up blowing up the station then that's better for me,_ he thought.  
Kevin gripped the edges of the screen and turned up the brightness, revealing more bodies in the background. He closed his eyes and swallowed.

"Mr. Price... I don't feel well." Arnold said shakily.

Kevin didn't open his eyes. He simply nodded, and then he slowly let go of the screen's edges to cover his face in his hands. He brought them over his forehead and combed his fingers through his hair.  
"Are you the only one there?"

"As far as... as far as I know." Arnold curled up in a ball on the chair.

He opened his eyes. "You can't," he said. "No. No, you can't be alone."

"I... they're all lifeless. I'm the only person from Mission Control left... I'M JUST AN INTERN! I CAN'T DO THIS!" Arnold freaked out.

Kevin was freaking out himself, but he tried to stay calm. "Okay, okay, have you checked 911? Or are the signals down?"

Arnold whipped out his phone and called. "It's a dial tone... it's all down..."

Kevin felt himself grow dizzy from anxiety. "Do you at least know how to get me down from here?" he asked. "Please," he begged, "I want to go home."

"You have an escape pod right!" Arnold exclaimed as he wiped some tears from his eyes.

"I need ground control. It's hopeless."

"I can try and help..." Arnold mumbled, "I've seen them do it before..."

"I'm sorry." Kevin shook his head. "I'm stuck here."

"There has to be a way... There _has to,_ " Arnold shouted.

Kevin pulled a knee up to his chest. "I'll need to figure it out later," he managed. "For now, it's just you and me." He looked around the silent space station. "Well, here it's mostly me."

"I can try and wake someone up... I mean they can't all be _dead!_ " Arnold laughed hysterically.

Kevin didn't respond. He breathed heavily, trying to calm himself down.

Arnold went up to someone and he put his ear to their chest and softly heard a heart pounding, but he couldn't be sure so he checked his pulse. "MR PRICE! HE'S ALIVE! OH MY GOD!" He shook the man, but he didn't wake up.

Kevin watched Cunningham try to wake the man. With dread, he glanced back at the cabins.

"He's... HE'S NOT WAKING UP! OH MY GOSH, ARE THEY ZOMBIES?!" Arnold freaked out.

"Of course not," Kevin replied, but he wasn't so sure anymore. The thought of everyone else on the planet in comas made him feel sick.

Arnold sat back down in the chair and held his head in his hands. "I'm going to go insane."

Kevin gave a shaky laugh. "We're on the same boat then, aren't we?"

"Yeah... yeah..." Arnold wished someone else was there with him.

Kevin leaned into the screen and stared directly into Cunningham's eyes. "Look," he said in a low but calm voice, "You can refer to me by Kevin. Until this is all over."

"Okay, Kevin... wait Kevin Price... I've heard your name before." Arnold rubbed more tears away.

He tilted his head. "Really?"

"Yeah yeah... you were trained to go on your Mormon mission right? But you stopped so you could be an astronaut? Or was it you finished your mission... I don't know but I was supposed to be your companion till you switched!"

Kevin furrowed his eyebrows. "How do you know?" he asked.

"The, uh, head guy told me that you switched and I got out with Elder Bowman."

"...right." Kevin couldn't help but to feel a pang of guilt. _If I didn't switch then maybe I wouldn't be stuck in here–_  
He shut off the thought. "I really wanted to achieve something, you know. I was young. I still am, but I was...I was stupid."

"No you're in space! I've always wanted to be there!" Arnold yelled.

A smile spread across Kevin's face as he chuckled. He felt his heartbeat slowing down to its normal rate. "It's incredible," he said.

"I mean like it's so cool that you're up there and- oh god I'm going to start rambling... we need to get you down."

"It's okay. I'll be fine." Kevin almost stuttered. "So you're also from Salt Lake City?" he asked.

"Yeah. Born and raised." Arnold smiled, despite his shuddering breaths.

"Same here!" Kevin began to relax. He knew he should be managing the ISS on his own...but does it matter at this point?

"So wait, are you a Star Wars or a Star Trek Guy? I'm a Star Wars guy but I can talk about Star Trek if you like it."

"I'm actually more of a...uh...Disney person." Kevin laughed. "It's silly, I know."

"Oh, Disney! Oh my gosh, so Star Wars is now Disney, and I think that's really cool–also is General Leia a Disney princess?"

"She should! I actually don't know much about Star Wars, but my brother Jack was into it."

"Gosh, is space as cool as it is in Star Wars?"

"No lightsabers out here, but it's still amazing. The thing is, space looks really cool when you're looking up from Earth, but it's the other way around when you're looking down on Earth from up here." Kevin wanted to launch into a series of space facts to show off some of his knowledge, but it didn't feel like the right timing.

"It's all around you," Arnold whispered.

Kevin smiled. He wanted to go and give this person, his to-be companion, a pat on the shoulder. They could have been great friends, if only he wasn't too rash when he was nineteen.  
"How's Salt Lake doing?" he asked.

"Well everyone seems to be dead or in a deep sleep so that's–" Arnold took a deep breath. "Thats cool"

Kevin nodded grimly. "Salt Lake City," he breathed. "Back in Salt Lake, I told my high school physics teacher that I wanted to work at NASA. He was on-board with it, and he joked that I'd be closer to Heavenly Father if I ever did go into space." He gave a cynical laugh after his short ramble. "Either my physics teacher is wrong, or he's right and Heavenly Father's punishing me now that I'm in his reach."

"You're not being punished." Arnold said and sighed. "I wish I could help you down from there..."

Kevin wrapped his arms around his knees. He was desperate to fill in any silence. If he stayed within the quiet mechanical atmosphere of the ISS then he would go insane before half an hour even passed.  
"Where did you go for your mission?" he asked.

"Uganda!" Arnold smiled "I met the most amazing girl... she was so pretty and... I hope she's okay."

Now Kevin didn't want to admit where he went for his mission, which was Orlando. "How's it there?" he asked.

"It was hot and I almost got killed by a warlord, but I finished and... I never really got to talk to N- Nabulungi after that... she was taken by the General..."

"Oh gosh." Kevin's blood froze. "I can't believe that happened to you. Y-you've been through a lot."

"Yeah. I felt like I had a real connection with Naba, but I..." Arnold choked up "I don't think the General is going to let her live..."

 _I killed someone. She's dead because of me._ Kevin dug his fingernails into his leg. _No. Stop that, Kevin._  
"...I'm sorry."

"It wasn't you. Trust me, that General guy is scary..."

"Okay." Kevin started shaking. "I'm still sorry."

"I'm sorry I can't find a way to get you down..."

"It's really alright. Can I call you...what's your first name?"

"Arnold." he replied.

"Arnold," Kevin repeated. "I'm Kevin. I already said that earlier," he said, and then he sighed. "It's quiet here, so I need to speak or I'll go crazy," he tried to explain.

"I can play music if that helps." Arnold got out his phone.

"Sure." Kevin leaned in closer to hear.

Arnold played his soothing Spotify list. It had a lot of calming songs, which he put on full blast.

Kevin closed his eyes and crossed his arms as he listened to the music playing through the speakers. He used to hate learning musical instruments because reading the notes seemed too mechanical to him, but now the notes made up an organic human presence within the space station. Thinking about instruments drew him back to when he showed off on the family piano with pride as his parents and siblings clapped with adoration. A slight smile teased the corners of his mouth.

The audio crackled a little, so Kevin looked up and asked, "Is the reception back there alright?"

"It should be. Is the reception there okay?"

"It's kind of iffy right now." Kevin played around with some of the audio controls. "Hey, before I forget, what did you think I was like before I moved missions?"

"You were... incredible I mean, you were the best Mormon."

Kevin smiled sadly. "I'm sure you were too–"  
The screen shut off.

Arnold slammed on the call button. "No no NO NO NO-" He tried to get signal back. "PLEASE NO."

Kevin froze. "Cunningham?" he spoke into the mic. "Cunningham?" he repeated. He reached for the audio controls. "Do you receive? Ground control?"  
No one spoke on the other end.  
" _Arnold?_ "

"KEVIN? NO!" Arnold yelled and cried. He slammed the audio buttons and sighed.

" _Arnold? No. No! Arnold! Please! ARNOLD!_ " Kevin struck his fist against the buttons. "No! No...Arnold. _Arnold!_ " Kevin let out a scream.

Arnold cried because Kevin could die because of him. He tried the last resort, a message in Morse code. He tried to beep something in, but he didn't know if that connection was also off.

The screen momentarily lit up, but all it showed was a gray screen. A series of beeps came through the headphones. Kevin's breaths shuddered as he turned up the audio and slowed it down.  
A series of beeps sounded through the speakers again.

 _KEVIN_

Tears brimmed in Kevin's eyes. He mouthed Arnold's name in one last response.

The lights on the farthest end of the hallway clicked off.

And then the next.

And the next.

The lights surrounding Kevin fell dark. He slowly looked up, his breaths shaking and his eyes wide.

And then the International Space Station shut off. The lifeless entity merely continued its orbit around the blue planet it called home.


End file.
